Recently I fell and broke a number of bones in my right hand. Figuring out how to live with only one hand, and that one not being my dominant one, has been an awakening journey. The simplest things we take for granted, like the basic capability of  opening a jar or tying a shoe, come into question. Every other minute of the day it is something else. This has a way of calling absolutely everything into question — how we come to take anything at all for granted is up for reflection.

There is pain involved, layers of pain not just physical, but the physical pain is the most easily focused upon. In dealing with this I have had some interesting discoveries. More than pain killers or anti-inflammatories or aspirin, what my hand seems to crave is touch. In a few instances I have asked friends to just hold it, showing them where to place their thumbs and fingers on the most damaged parts. I feel the energy of the touch like a subtle but powerful electricity going into the brokenness; it is fascinating. I can barely believe how good and healing it feels, or the sense of relief it brings. This is not at all something I can do for myself, it only happens through the touch of another.

Perhaps brokenness is sometimes a necessary opening to allow for energy from another to come in, so we can understand more fully the ways that we require one another. This experience encourages me more than ever to want to do what it is that I do in my work, which is sometimes to sit with and hold broken places in soul, spirit and psyche so that energy, which is by nature healing, can pass through.

This hand holding gives a simple image for what we can do for one another. It isn’t surgery and doesn’t take great skill; it simply requires focus, willingness, care and attention. That is not too hard for us.